The College of Liberal Arts' University Forum lecture series presents Should We Call the Police? Theatrical Illusion in France, England, and Germany a talk by Howard D. Weinbrot, Ricardo Quintana Professor of English, and William F. Vilas Research Professor, University of Wisconsin, Emeritus.

In the early motion pictures, the image of locomotive racing towards the screen drove audiences from the theatre. When Orson Welles adapted H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds for radio broadcast in 1938, many listeners panicked, thinking that the earth was indeed being invaded by Martians.

When we think we hear a Martian in the garden, fear a runaway locomotive, or watch onstage mayhem, why don’t we call the police? Literary history answers the question of theatrical illusion in three ways, each drawn from a different national tradition.